Three I-P Issues and Questions

April 24, 2008

Three Israel-Palestine issues and questions:

The UN is to halt food handouts for up to 800,000 Palestinians from tomorrow because of a severe fuel shortage in Gaza brought on by an Israeli economic blockade.

John Ging, the director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, said there had been a "totally inadequate" supply of fuel from Israel to Gaza for 10 months until it was finally halted two weeks ago. "The devastating humanitarian impact is entirely predictable," he said.

and LAT

The United States, France and Britain walked out of a Security Council debate on the Middle East on Wednesday after Libya compared the situation in the Gaza Strip to that of Nazi "concentration camps," diplomats said.

How is starving in Auschwitz different from starving in Gaza?

2. Washington Note

In a closed congressional session tomorrow, Israeli intelligence officers will provide Members of Congress with details regarding Israel’s air raid last September on an alleged nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. However, there is no solid evidence to date that Syria was actually building a nuclear facility, according to highly-placed U.S. intelligence officials.

When was the CIA replaced by Mossad?

3. WaPo

A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president’s efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.

Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush’s letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush’s peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank.

In the comments at the Post people seem to be somewhat suprised by this issue.

Olmert is correct here. Bush gave that "permission". The letter exchange, little discussed in U.S. media, was at that time published in full in the Israeli media. The core sentence is Sharon’s never rejected claim:

In this regard, we are fully aware of the responsibilities facing the State of Israel. These include limitations on the growth of settlements; …

No dismanteling of settlements, just a slower growth rate. A follow up letter by Sharon’s chief of staff Doc Weissglas to Rice was also published in the Israeli press.

Rice will now again say: "I don’t think anybody could have predicted that …"

The "peace process" was never a serious one. Israel never planed to give up any of its illegal colonial settlement in the West Bank and with the acceptance of the letter exchange Bush actively supported that policy.

Now under pressure from the Saudis, Bush has to deliver some kind of peace deal. But nothing will be signed by the Palestinians without abolishment of settlements. Therefore Bush now wants to retract from his former position.

Within what system of international law can the president of country A give "permission" to country B to
colonize C and country B claim that such a "permission" justifies its
illegal policies?

Posted by b on April 24, 2008 at 12:37 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Don’t forget b, for seventy years and more (since before we were born) Israel has been doing exactly this in some variation. And yet – the charade continues as if no-one has ever noticed the deceit. U.S. press has ALWAYS parroted the Israeli line – I dunno about European press.
That word deceit above refers to a permanent condition of Israeli world-view which includes conceit, “God’s chosen” if you will, perpetual malleable lies, spying of course in many forms, and underhanded murder, mass and targeted both. Oh yeah, and always blaming the other guy too. I call that cowardice. (Not that good ole USA has anything on em, like any standing for criticism.)
Now I know I’m not telling you anything new; just reminding you to remember this whenever you bring up the subject.

Posted by: rapt | Apr 24 2008 13:15 utc | 1

why there isn’t a sea of silent flesh for miles around 1600 Penn simply because b has to ask these questions is quite distressing
Americans have guns, granted by the 2nd Amendment to throw off tyranny, but this is un-necessary
everyone take holidays at the same time, whatever the max you get from say, Labour Day and visit the lovely capital or the Big Apple.
But don’t do the lovely touristy things.
Take candles and stand in silent vigil around 1600 or the UN.
No singing, chanting, drums or violence. No prayers or dancing.
No violence in word or deed.
Just stone faced silent vigil for the dead, all of them – since the UN was malformed post WW2.
Only a sign to express your demands:
No more war for oil
Let the free market reign, return to corporate charters
End the rape of Gaia…
Whatever
Just go, fill the hotels/motels, the campgrounds, the rooms of friends or even strangers
Just put in a shift every day at the UN or 1600
If they put up fences – fill all the other spaces
If they threaten attack, move all the mommas and babies to the fore and remain silent
For as long as you can
Do not yield
with a candle for the dead
to achieve atonement

Posted by: jcairo | Apr 24 2008 13:25 utc | 2

Stuck in the ice of Cocytus Satan has a triform character, three faces, three colors, three victims being chewed. The most egregious criminal, Judas has his head chewed on, the other two are Brutus and Cassius whose feet are chewed because their crime had a less exalted victim. This figure masquerades the Blessed Trinity.
In Milton we find Satan returning triumphantly from his expedition into Paradise and gloating to his hosts about his exploits. Then he expects an ovation but the most remarkable transformation occurs. He begins to become a serpent, a giant one, and his subordinates become also serpents and instead of applauding their king they begin to hiss.
We are nowadays subjected to a masquerade of the good: absolutely evil enterprises are presented as manifestations of the glory of the good. On the other hand those that have been posessed by evil become precisely the image of their posessors. Myths and great literature impart more knowledge about mankind that all the Timeses and Guardians and Mondes.

Posted by: jlcg | Apr 24 2008 14:41 utc | 3

pr watch: A Not-So-Candid CAMERA

Source: Electronic Intifada, April 21, 2008
CAMERA, a lobby group that campaigns against criticism of the Israeli government in U.S. media, had a campaign to impact Wikipedia’s coverage of Israel and Palestine issues. In emails, CAMERA’s Gilead Ini stressed that the effort should be secret, and counseled members to avoid “picking a user name that marks you as pro-Israel, or that lets people know your real name.” He also instructed members to “always log in” under their user names, so that Wikipedia would not “record your computer’s IP address.” While directing CAMERA members to certain articles on Israel and Palestine, Ini cautioned that new Wikipedia users should “avoid editing Israel-related articles for a short period of time,” so as not to develop reputations as “one-topic editors.” A long-time Wikipedia editor, “Zeq,” advised CAMERA on its plan. Zeq suggested that some CAMERA members “stay away from any Israel realted [sic] articles,” until building up enough support to become nominated as administrators, who help resolve controversies. “We will go to war after we have build [sic] our army,” Zeq wrote. After the emails were published, Zeq was banned from editing Wikipedia for one year, for — in the words of one Wikipedian — “recruit[ing] meatpuppets from off-wiki to push POV,” a point of view. CAMERA responded by “temporarily or permanently” ending its Wikipedia email group, “in hopes that members’ personal contact information will not be made public.”

the EI report links to the camera emails

Posted by: b real | Apr 24 2008 14:43 utc | 4

That EI article about CAMERA is disgusting. Imagine, ‘they’ (zionists) trying to rewrite history in Wikipedia!
It is amazing how such a small number of people in the world can have such a huge and damaging impact. History will tell the story, if there is any history in 50 years.

Posted by: Jake | Apr 24 2008 16:30 utc | 5

“…an alleged nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance.”
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 World Tribune
‘Landmark’ deal ends U.S. stalemate with Israel over nuclear reactor
TEL AVIV — Israel and the United States have signed an agreement on safety at a nuclear reactor in the Negev desert.
Under the accord, the United States would help Israel monitor and enhance its nuclear reactor at Dimona, Middle East Newsline reported.

Posted by: shockley | Apr 24 2008 17:33 utc | 6

heard somewhere in cyberspace….
re: WIKIPEDIA
don’t believe entries which arent falsified by yourselves

Posted by: rudolf | Apr 24 2008 18:32 utc | 7

b real
Before the 2nd World War, both sides – Britain and Germany – ran extensive psy-ops operations against each other, including magazines, clandestine radio stations purporting to be run by all sorts of bogus organizations, and stories deliberately planted in foreign newspapers.
Israel at the moment must be running a very large psy-ops operation. Posting on various liberal talk fora, one becomes aware of quite organized and vicious attempts to disrupt and deflect discussion – especially on Israel/Palestine – and to plug extremely pro-Israeli lines. Often, when a particularly big story breaks, they will be a pause – presumably while emails are exchanged – then they all arrive with a common line. I suspect something is being organized – whether on a formal, governmental level, or an informal one.

Posted by: johnf | Apr 24 2008 18:47 utc | 8

johnf: Just look at the Dem primaries debates. By the strangest of coincidences, any criticism of Hillary Clinton is painted as sexism, misogyny and chauvinism. Weirdly the same tactic as being labeled a nazi every time you raise any criticism of Israeli policies.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Apr 24 2008 21:54 utc | 9

You asked how starving in a Nazi death camp was different than starving in Gaza. Perhaps, once you step back from the hyperbole, you can see that there are a few differences.
Assuming that you’re a college-educated fellow and your question was in jest, here are four “starters” with which you may be able to work:
(1) the SS had a better, if somewhat gay, fashion sense than the IDF,
(2) no IDF doctors are going into the camps in Gaza looking for gold teeth to pull,
(3) the IDF hasn’t conquered Europe looking for Palestinians to incarcerate, rob, torture, and execute (or even prohibited Muslims from being part of the Army, the Police, or any other branch of their government), and
(4) the occupants of Auschwitz didn’t launch rocket and mortar attacks on German women and children while watching their leaders become wealthy and their children starve.
I’m sure you can come up with something better on your own…

Posted by: jtb-in-texas | Apr 25 2008 20:52 utc | 10

jtb-in-texas:
and (4) the occupants of Auschwitz didn’t launch rocket and mortar attacks on German women and children while watching their leaders become wealthy and their children starve.
This is what has always puzzled me about the “occupants of Auschwitz” because most of them went willingly. Their leaders may not have gotten wealthy but they certainly helped their children starve. I prefer to call them collaborators. A few valiantly held out such as the Warsaw Gheto Uprising and some in the resistance survived but most went to their enslavement and death with no resistance. It is a lesson in history that has not been forgotten.
As for those German women and children we took care of the attacks on them especially on Dresdan. A little payback for London perhaps. Japanese women and children didn’t do too well either under Fat Man. Palestinian women and children have it much better under Israel except for the starving of course. Those tank flechette rounds and hellfire missiles liberally sprinkled in residential areas, fully endorsed by the government and courts execution laws, are way more benevolent than the all out bombing or nuking we like to use.
I sometimes wonder what the Israelis hope to accomplish by keeping their kill rate lower than the birth rate of Palestinians? The Israelis don’t seem to mind those rocket and mortar attacks much either as Hamas just offered them a 6 month truce and Israel told them to shove it. What do you suppose they intend on doing to those people anyway?

Posted by: Sam | Apr 26 2008 3:17 utc | 11

(1) the SS had a better, if somewhat gay, fashion sense than the IDF,
sam, i have to agree w/tex on this one.
(2) no IDF doctors are going into the camps in Gaza looking for gold teeth to pull,
no, they transport them to israel before they torture them or extract organs, altho they did pass a law in 06 outlawing brokering of organs.. finally.

(3) the IDF hasn’t conquered Europe looking for Palestinians to incarcerate, rob, torture, and execute
did the nazis actually conquer europe? i thought they were just on their way, like zionists are on their way conquering the ME.
the occupants of Auschwitz didn’t launch rocket and mortar attacks on German women and children while watching their leaders become wealthy and their children starve.
i didn’t realize the leaders of palestinians (hamas, not the puppets) were getting wealthy. i’m am rather curious, while the occupants of Auschwitz were watching their children starve, if they had the opportunity, don’t you think they would have fought back?

Posted by: annie | Apr 26 2008 4:39 utc | 12

Thank you annie,
I just didn’t have the energy to refute yet again, another intellectual dink, whom either sees what they want to see or is part of the thousands of Israeli first, paid or nationalistic ‘chosen’ tribal bullshit keyboard front.
“oy vey” and “weh”…
Or thirdly, a well meaning cog casualty of the propagenda fallout; a zombie of feigned action or fictitious clarity.
Auschwitz Versus Gaza in the light of Political Correctness

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 26 2008 7:30 utc | 13

Auschwitz Versus Gaza in the light of Political Correctness “>Auschwitz Versus Gaza in the light of Political Correctness

Posted by: Ghost of Saddam Hussein | Apr 26 2008 7:32 utc | 14

Edward Said pointed out that the issue of Palestinian human rights is often shunned by many who are otherwise supportive of human rights in general.
“Abortion, homosexuality, the death penalty, even the sacrosanct military budget can be discussed with some freedom. The extermination of native Americans can be admitted, the morality of Hiroshima attacked, the national flag publicly committed to the flames. But the systematic continuity of Israel’s 52-year-old oppression and maltreatment of the Palestinians is virtually unmentionable, a narrative that has no permission to appear.” (”The Last Taboo,” New Left Review, Nov/Dec., 2000).

Posted by: Ghost of Saddam Hussein | Apr 26 2008 7:38 utc | 15

Abbas: I failed in U.S., no progress in peace talks

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and he is returning home from Washington with little to show for his visit.
…
Abbas’ aides said he was also upset after his lunch Thursday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. While discussing what a peace deal would look like, Rice did not mention the Palestinian goal of creating a state based on borders before Israel captured Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day war.
“We demanded that they talk about the ’67 borders,” Abbas told AP, showing a rare flash of anger. “None of them talks about the ’67 borders.”
Asked whether U.S. officials offered any new U.S. proposals, Abbas said no.
“They are exerting efforts. And we are still negotiating,” he said, but he noted that no progress had been made on any of the core issues.
“All the files are still open. None of them are concluded. The situation is still as it was,” Abbas said, speaking in Arabic.

Posted by: b | Apr 26 2008 7:48 utc | 16

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